Eyes snapped open. The beeping had awoken her. When did the darkness of slumber take her? It couldn't have been for long and she dreaded looking at any form of time piece or monitor in fear of learning how small the passage of time was. Hands rubbed at her face as she rose up, gathering her discarded clothes to put back on. She'd need a shower soon enough. Jumpsuit and jacket on, she strolled towards the exit to the room. Only once outside did she remember to send Piper, who had remained asleep, a message and update on events.
She briefly stopped by the cafeteria and grabbed what looked to be a nutrition bar but tasted like cardboard with pepper flakes mixed in. It would have to do. She found herself hurrying. It took her realizing this to slow her pace from a fast trot to normal walking speed. It was unusual for her to get like this and she didn't intend to strain herself. Through winding corridors she finally found the hangar, walking out and taking it all in for the first actual time. For an asteroid base, the hangar was tighter than she was used to. More purposeful, more ships moving in and out. Wandering she found her next ride with its pilot performing some form of maintenance on the vessel. Careful to keep her pace regulated, she strolled over. "Passenger Dash One, reportin' f'fight check." She said, flashing a cheeky smile.
Her attitude seemed to be infectious, causing him to smirk up at her from his crouched position. Standing up, he'd dust himself off and face her properly. "You seem chipper, sleep well?" He realized it was quite likely that she slept poorly, since this was such a foreign place, and cramped with people and their accompanying noise. But it still seemed fair to ask given how she was behaving. It was quite a departure from her tone just over eight hours ago.
Wanting to relax for a little bit, since the patterns were full and he'd need to wait before taking off, he walked over to one of the folded wings and sat down. A shuttle was inbound with a wing of pilots that were being transferred here, the chaos would take a few minutes to clear up even after they landed.
"Like ah lump on'a log." She lied in response to his question. She figured she was feeling a bit better than the day before as was pointed out. It was easier to maintain her outwards self now, knowing she would be doing more public things. A facade was easy to maintain when not as exhausted, too. It hid the normal nastiness of her personality.
Unbidden, she joined him leaning her back on the ship. She let the silence linger for the moment as they watched the shuttle fly in and settle. Even though the hangar was active with sound, she found it calming. A passive sound of chains, fueling pipes, hydraulic lifts and clamps and people all mixing together to form a randomized ambience. She glanced to her pilot, curious. "Rules an' expectations? Ah don't want t'do anythin' t'piss y'off while stuck so close. Should ah prepare for us gettin' into a firefight?" They were fair questions. She knew better than assume she was to be some pampered guest. She was being given a ride, it wasn't a right to have good treatment. She also didn't want to assume they wouldn't be caught out by naval patrols. She didn't know the Xeno flight paths well enough to know if they were safe to get to their destination without crossing naval ones.
Pursing his lips in thought for a good few seconds, he gave her question due consideration while keeping an attentive ear tuned to the noise of the deck behind them. When things seemed to be clearing up and it was going to be time for them to leave soon, he'd finally answer. "Just hold on tight, and don't pass out." It definitely was the cheekiest possible answer he could have provided, there was certainly an option to just say there weren't any rules and that fighting was almost always going to occur, but he instead chose to say something with a clear double meaning. To make things cheekier, it was delivered with a wink and the offer of a spare helmet, though it at least had her name on it so there was some thought behind the gesture. She definitely wasn't a pampered guest to anyone here, but at least he didn't see her as an obnoxious stranger that he couldn't wait to be rid of.
With the deck behind them cleared up, he gestured that she hop into the ship with him, strapping his helmet on and sliding open the canopy for her to get in. The ship itself had been freshly painted, given a patterned camouflage that gave off an extremely humble militia aesthetic. By this point, she'd likely had more than enough time to take the ship's looks in, so once she'd navigated into the ship past the pilot's seat, so did Morreti.
A thud sealed the canopy shut, and he strapped himself in before requesting clearance to leave using the communicator in his helmet.
She took the helmet, sticking her tongue out at him as she briefly tamed her hair using a scrunchy. Helmet on she appeared like any other pilot except for the clear unknowing aura she extruded when it came to dealing with smaller ships. It took her a few moments to figure out how to enter the secondary seat. She tried to simply lower herself before figuring a "feet first" approach would likely be better, stepping in backwards and having to awkwardly shuffle in place to face the right direction. Settling down, at least she knew how to strap herself in. Her datapad came out to rest on her lap, running a cable from it to her helmet, then to herself as she did before.
She knew enough to not speak until they were clear of the hangar, letting him have clean communications and focus for the launch. She took this time to boot up the needed scanning and data analysis modules and while they were loading, glanced around outside the canopy. She was used to stations and larger ships that made space feel like looking outside a display port or viewing deck into a recorded view of the void around it. While she knew the cover was thick and safe enough for space flight, it was somehow different when that bit of see-through material is right above you and you just witnessed it opening up.
The ship shook into life, signaling to her that they were taking off. She was thankful for the helmet now, even though nobody could see her. Her eyes closed tightly, until they were out.
With a mixture of mercy and perhaps kindness, Morreti went easy on the throttle and took them out of the hangar at a moderate speed. "We're clear of the base. How close do you need to be for those scans?" Outside the confines of the bay doors, he indulged in the opportunity to ramp up on the throttle and the ship folded the wings in to accommodate this and shift into cruise mode. Despite his enthusiasm, it was a process that felt quite smooth, due to the fact that this ship had likely seen no end of engine tuning to ensure a blend that was preferred by its pilot.
All the same, they were clearly moving quite rapidly in the direction of that pristine white marble, and Morreti had plotted a course that had them dip under the lane network and circle back to Atka's dark side. This would keep them off the paths that either Liberty or Planetform were able to observe, and more or less free to carry out the scans.
Eyes opened. She never got used to the dodgy nature of fighter crafts or how much force it would play on a pilot's body in the pressurized cockpit. She tapped the helmet a few times to make sure it was still there before responding. "Depends on 'ow willin' you are to get planetside. Cursory scans from 'bout five klicks. Anythin' meaningful, we'd need t'enter it's gravitational pull an' atmosphere. Ideally scan from surface, but ain't gonna suggest that." She explained. Mary was happy technology had come such a long way. Getting element scans and air readings was standard on most ships these days, and accessing it and processing the data to return spools of calculations on terraforming status or other terestial work could be done with a simple datapad. It wouldn't be insanely accurate and there was a margin of error however it was good enough for a baseline estimate.
"Oh, and as close t'any camps or installations planetside you're willin' t'go. Can cross reference their setup with prior scans later." She added.
Continuing on course, he considered her request in entirety and arrived at a series of quick conclusions. Judging from the fact that he didn't lay off the throttle or change their heading, he was definitely taking them into Atka's atmosphere. "Down we go." Having announced this, his intentions were clear. At this speed and on a more direct course, they were closing in on atmospheric entry in just under an hour. "This is where you hold on tight." He reminded her of his joke from earlier, which now had practical use. With a flick of the wrist and yank of another hand, he had cut the throttle to zero and also put the ship in a position to brace. There was no longer a need to speed in towards their mark, it was now pulling them in towards it, falling like a rock.
For its part, the ship endured all this stress well, the rest fell on the pilot who seemed to keep his nerve.
Obscenities slew out from her lips as they began to rush the planet. Only once did she mention something foul of fighter pilot's mothers lack of love, though it was playful enough to be excused. Knuckles went white as her grip found handles, trying to get the shaking in her core to stop.
Her datapad slipped from her lap to somewhere on the floor below her. She would get him back for this if they survived, she decided.
There was a distinct clicking noise from his end, loud enough that it echoed into the helmet to helmet radio system. The persistent sound of the hull being assaulted by the veil of friction around Atka was met by a crackling backdrop and music that seemed to only grow louder, soon replacing the rush of fire with rhythm. Rather than the cold black of space juxtaposed by amber flames, they were soaring through colored waves. "We're in the clear, and with this for a view." A line of windows from a bridge could never compare to this, only that layer of reinforced glass between them and the aurora.